J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Liber Studiorum notes c.1807-19 > Liber Notes (2) Sketchbook [Finberg CLIV ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: A Draft of Poetry; with ?the Thames Valley from Richmond Hill c.1808-18

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: A Draft of Poetry; with ?the Thames Valley from Richmond Hill’ c.1808-18
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto:
Inscription by Turner: A Draft of Poetry; with ?the Thames Valley from Richmond Hill c.1808–18
D12143
Turner Bequest CLIV a 13
Pencil on white wove paper, 89 x 112 mm
Stamped in black ‘CLIV (a) – 13’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The inscription seems to be poetry rather than the calculations implied by Finberg, written with the page turned vertically:
[?Then] [...]
[......................... ?arm themself]
[...] T[...] Bo[... ?what] you call
[........................] or squall
The lines are at right angles to the landscape sketch occupying the rest of the page, which continues across folio 12 verso opposite (D12142). The sketch, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, slightly overlaps with the last line, and may have been made later.
The overall sketch appears to show the classic view west up the Thames below Richmond Hill seen in a number of Turner’s works, most notably his large painting England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent’s Birthday, exhibited in 1819 (Tate N00502).1 There are similar panoramic views on folios 10 verso–11 recto, 11 verso–12 recto and 13 verso–14 recto (D12138–D12141, D12144–D12145). For 1818 as the likely date of the drawing, see under D12138.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.106–7 no.140, Pl.145 (colour).
Technical notes:
There seems to be no sign of John Ruskin’s usual red ink foliation; there are such numbers on most of the later pages (see the troduction to the sketchbook).

Matthew Imms
September 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: A Draft of Poetry; with ?the Thames Valley from Richmond Hill c.1808–18 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-inscription-by-turner-a-draft-of-poetry-with-the-thames-r1147559, accessed 23 April 2024.